22 May 2023
Singapore arrival
Taipei to Singapore on a Boeing 787
Well, now I am in Singapore. It is late for me, a quarter to midnight! So this will be brief and nonsensical.
All my transfers in both Taipei and especially arriving in Singapore were very smooth. In fact the time from exiting the plane to leaving Singapore airport with my bag was under 20 minutes, and then another 30 to take the Singapore metro and walk a bit to my hotel.
The flight was also fine, just over 4 hours in the air, a bit of messing about on the ground as usual, I had a spare seat next to me, I watched the movie Spielberg made about his own childhood that was pretty good, especially since it went for over 2.5 hours.
So now I am in a shit hotel, photo below, in a shit part of Singapore, but it's cheap.
I launched a drone to take a photo of Taoyuan airport (the Taipei airport). It looks like lego!
Here is the observation deck, from inside the building. They would not let me out there because I had a camera! Never had that happen before. The people out there taking photos with their phone, apparently that is ok, but my little point and shoot camera, not ok, or was it because I was a round eye?
I love Taipei airport, here is the shopping and customs area, well, one of many, this was also a very smooth process, no more than a couple of minutes in any line. There was super extra security for people going to Japan because of the G7 summit that just finished there.
The Singapore airlines lounge in Taipei is closed, and apparently is not going to re open, ever. No problem, I like this airport, time for the giant walk! Just enough time if I walk fast!
There are at least 40 little booths to see with art like this. Well, art, ads for parts of Taiwan.
Here is another for native Taiwanese culture. I have shown some others on previous visits.
This is actually a library of sorts, with traditional furniture that looks quite uncomfortable.
The airport is a big square you can walk all the way around. Pics wont do it justice, but here I am in the middle looking right, through tinted windows I fixed with the white balance slider...
And from the same spot, looking left across the mini train elevated track. The airport bit completing the square of terminals to walk around is behind the tower, so it is quite far. I would say it is further around than Singapore airport, which you cannot quite walk all the way around, but there are less spurs shooting off at the corners at Taoyuan airport, if that makes any sense at all?
This is my tiny 787 Dreamliner, my next flight is apparently on the recently reinstated A380, which is the cause of my flight change which forced me to stay a day in Singapore.
Proof I exited the airport, this is a Singapore MRT station at the airport, and for once, I am not taking this photo after being awake for 36 hours straight.
And finally for tonight, my very basic hotel room, it is an Ibis Budget, about $140 AUD, very cheap compared to nearly everywhere else in Singapore, but it is right in the GAY RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Now I must go to sleep immediately.